Tokhang Sa Tokhang

Let’s get to know the stories of drug users who were able to recover when thousands of others could not. As thousands are killed for alleged drug links, here are four former drug users on the lifelong road to recovery — in their own words.

Why do decent but desperate Filipinos fall not only into using drugs, but actually peddling? And how do good intentions - of people, and of government leaders - turn out so bad?

It was a four-letter word long before Duterte. Over decades - and certainly over Tokhang - "addict" has been invoked with less and less nuance, with greater, graver implications.

Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs was the bloodiest, but it was not the exception. It was the culmination of a problematic, simplistic paradigm that was festering and unchallenged for decades. From the dictator Marcos to the terms of Estrada and Arroyo, and even with some supporters of the Aquinos, abusive "total wars on drugs" had been enabled by everyone from populist politicians to moralistic, conservative sectors - religious leaders included. Whichever came first - the popularity or the populism - these unbridled, abusive campaigns have made governments and the entire society miss crucial insights on how to more responsibly deal with drugs and all its associated social ills.

For those left behind by victims of Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, there is a need to move on without waiting for justice. Civil society groups have taken the lead on providing support to surviving relatives through counseling sessions, financial assistance, and even a coffee shop that keeps the memories of victims alive, but these grassroots efforts alone are not enough for wounds to heal. How do they get up, move on, without healing?

The body of Kian delos Santos was exhumed five years after his murder, along with others killed under former president Rodrigo Duterte's War on Drugs. One basic truth was also unearthed: these victims were among the poorest of the poor. But who really knows, or listens to, their untold stories? And now that everything is being dug back up, how should everyone and everything be seen, if we are to really understand drug use and its contexts, and more responsibly respond to it?